Processes and products for enhanced biological product

Abstract

The invention relates to genetic constructs encoding a compartmenting peptide, wherein expression of the compartmenting peptide leads to formation of a droplet body comprising a targeted biological product, and to vectors including such constructs. The invention also relates to methods of increasing the yield of a biological product in a plant, and to methods for producing a transgenic plant which produces an increased yield of a biological product. The invention also relates to transgenic plants, host cells, plant propagation products and plant parts. The invention also relates to the biological products themselves, produced according to the invention.

The invention claimed is: 
     
       1. A genetic construct comprising: a promoter; a coding sequence encoding one or more enzymes whose expression increases production of one or more terpenes in a plant; a coding sequence encoding a compartmenting peptide, wherein expression of the compartmenting peptide leads to formation of a droplet body comprising the one or more terpenes; and a coding sequence encoding a transit signal peptide to direct droplet body formation in chloroplast of the plant. 
     
     
       2. The genetic construct of  claim 1 , wherein the compartmenting peptide is oleosin, or a functional variant or fragment or orthologue thereof. 
     
     
       3. The genetic construct of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more enzymes are farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase (FPPS), or squalene synthase (SQS), or both farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase (FPPS) and squalene synthase (SQS). 
     
     
       4. The genetic construct of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more enzymes comprise squalene synthase (SQS) and one or more upstream enzymes involved in terpene biosynthesis. 
     
     
       5. The genetic construct of  claim 4 , wherein the upstream enzyme is selected from the group consisting of: farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase (FPPS), geranyl diphosphate synthase (GPPS) and geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase (GGPPS). 
     
     
       6. The genetic construct of  claim 1 , further comprising a coding sequence encoding a substrate channeling protein which enhances the production of the one or more terpenes by promoting substrate channeling within the metabolic pathway leading to synthesis of the one or more terpenes. 
     
     
       7. A recombinant vector comprising the genetic construct of  claim 1 . 
     
     
       8. A method of increasing the yield of the one or more terpenes in a plant compared to the yield of the one or more terpenes in a wild-type plant cultured under the same conditions, the method comprising transforming a plant cell with the genetic construct of  claim 1 , and regenerating a plant from the transformed cell. 
     
     
       9. A method of producing a transgenic plant which produces a yield of the one or more terpenes which is higher than that of a corresponding wild-type plant cultured under the same conditions, the method comprising transforming a plant cell with the genetic construct of  claim 1 , and regenerating a plant from the transformed cell. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9 , wherein the plant is a monocotyledonous or dicotyledonous plant. 
     
     
       11. A transgenic plant comprising the genetic construct of  claim 1 . 
     
     
       12. A host cell comprising the genetic construct of  claim 1 . 
     
     
       13. A plant propagation product obtainable from the transgenic plant of  claim 11 . 
     
     
       14. A plant part containing higher levels of the one or more terpenes than a corresponding part of a wild-type plant cultured under the same conditions, wherein the plant part is produced by the method of  claim 8 .